A formidable litigator, Geoff helps businesses resolve their most complex contractual and business challenges

Specializing in contract, shareholder and tax disputes

Geoff offers clients the best of both worlds: exceptional courtroom skills founded on a strong academic background. Having written the authoritative text on contractual interpretation and putting that knowledge into practice, he is highly regarded for his strategic, well-researched and creative approaches to contentious issues.

Proven success as a litigator

As a leading litigator on corporate and commercial matters, Geoff represents a broad spectrum of organizations in contract disputes; shareholder disputes; tax disputes; administrative law litigation; Aboriginal litigation; and insolvency and bankruptcy cases. He consistently provides high-quality, strategic advice to clients and successfully resolves precedent-setting cases before all levels of Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and in domestic and international arbitrations.

Geoff’s notable engagements include:  

• representing The Toronto-Dominion Bank in a $5.5 billion action arising from the collapse of Stanford International Bank;
• counsel for Fairmont Hotels Inc. in a case in the Supreme Court of Canada that defined the proper test for rectification where there are tax implications;
• securing a multi-million dollar settlement in a confidential international commercial arbitration by use of a creative argument about the enforceability of a contractual limitation of liability clause under U.S. law; and
• representing one of the successful respondents in Wabauskang First Nation v. Minister of Northern Development and Mines, an application for judicial review alleging a breach of the duty to consult Aboriginal peoples.

Shaping the present and future of contract law

Geoff is a pioneer in contract law and literally wrote the book on it. Canadian Contractual Interpretation Law is considered the leading treatise in the field, having been cited more than 200 times by courts across the country - including 10 times by the Supreme Court of Canada. He has authored more than a dozen full-length journal articles on contract law and other topics; is an in-demand speaker at legal conferences and on panels; and is an honorary overseas member of the Commercial Bar Association of London, England. 

As an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Geoff helps prepare future lawyers for successful careers by teaching them the complexities of contracts and contractual interpretation - a staple for a successful career in law regardless of specialty. 

Geoff earned his LLB in 1991 from the University of Toronto.  Clerked for the Honourable Justice William Stevenson of the Supreme Court of Canada from  1991-1992. Geoff earned an LLM from Harvard Law School in 1996. Prior to this, he earned a BA from McGill as Gold Medalist in Economics and an MA from University of Toronto.